I am trying to do more portrait photography and so far my equipment consists of a 5d3, 2x 580exII and some lenses.

last weekend i had to do some portraits and what i did was borrow another 580exII to mount on the 5d3, then put my other 2 580 behind the subject shooting at the cream coloured wall behind them to make it white. All this was fired via the 580's master/slave function.

However, when i did some group shots after, the single output light from the camera mounted 580 wasnt even enough although i used a lightsphere (yea yea not the best, but it was a small room, worked well enough and was nowhere near as harsh as bounced/straight flash)

So what i want to do is potentially get some cheaper yongnuos as background lights so i can then relocated the flashes to have 2 behind, 2 infront and 1 on camera for a better distribution of light.

Which yongnuo is recommended if all i want to do is get them to fire via optical slave and they will be in manual mode?

Alternatively is there a better solution?

Im also researching to buy some light stands and umbrellas off amazon too as they ship to australia (cowboystudio umbrellas and manfrotto stands maybe) if anyone has any suggestions on that too.

If you are doing studio work only, and portability is not too much of an issue, it may be cheaper to go for monobloc lights. You should be able to get a pair of Elinchrom D-Lite 4 ITs with stands, radio trigger and softboxes for under $1000. A lot of photographers are using those, even though they are Elinchrom's entry-level offering. 400Ws is enough for a lot of smaller studios though. - My wife has two of those sets, and they provide her with everything she needs for studio work. (Look at Proworld - http://www.proworld.com.au - they often have good deals on the Elinchrom strobes, sometimes bundled with an extra light stand, relfector and brolly as well. - Take a look at this http://www.proworld.com.au/elinchrom-d-lite-it-4-the-portrait-kit

If portability is important for you, speedlights may be a better solution for you. The Elinchron softboxes are a nightmare to assemble and refold!

Depending where you are, Image Melbourne may be a good source of strobist gear, only the quality of some of the stuff they sell is a bit iffy. They are also more expensive on some of the Manfrotto stuff (for instance the Manfrotto Expans backdrop systems).

For some messing around, I bough a cheap optical trigger from dealextreme (a couple of bucks). You just need to be careful with third party optical slaves that they work with Canon Speedlites, as a lot do not.

for the yongnuos, im even looking at the YN-460II as they are really cheap and it says they have optical slave. But does that optical slave actually work with my 580EXII? Im not sure on how they work.

yea i'd love to get a full kit, but for now im only doing them on the side and i dont do this full time so cant justify them as of yet hence my decision to get some cheapie speedlights.

im in sydney and i was also recommended http://www.fotogenic.com.au/ for some cheap light stands but have yet to visit them to check it out.

does anyone have any experience with using canon 580EXII with yongnuo flashes? ideally id like to not purchase any triggers if possible...

I don't have personal experience with the Yongnuos, but with the integrated optical slave, that should work quite well with the any Canon Speedlite used as the master. The obvious caveat is that your master has to be set in manual mode, as otherwise the E-TTL preflash will trigger your optical slave.

I sometimes use a cheap wireless trigger to fire two Speedlites, which in turn fire another Speedlite via an optical slave, or to fire the Elinchroms using their integrated optical slaves. With arrangements like that, you may introduce additional latency and as a result you may have to pull back a bit on your maximum sync speed.

for the yongnuos, im even looking at the YN-460II as they are really cheap and it says they have optical slave. But does that optical slave actually work with my 580EXII? Im not sure on how they work.

yea i'd love to get a full kit, but for now im only doing them on the side and i dont do this full time so cant justify them as of yet hence my decision to get some cheapie speedlights.

im in sydney and i was also recommended http://www.fotogenic.com.au/ for some cheap light stands but have yet to visit them to check it out.

does anyone have any experience with using canon 580EXII with yongnuo flashes? ideally id like to not purchase any triggers if possible...

the 560's will be better (more powerfull) typically you will want your background lights to be running more power than you key lights especially if you want to blow a white backdrop out to pure whitethe 460s might struggle to keep up with the 580s of course you could also use more 460s vs 560s too be aware the optical slaves need line of sight too

I am trying to do more portrait photography and so far my equipment consists of a 5d3, 2x 580exII and some lenses.

last weekend i had to do some portraits and what i did was borrow another 580exII to mount on the 5d3, then put my other 2 580 behind the subject shooting at the cream coloured wall behind them to make it white. All this was fired via the 580's master/slave function.

However, when i did some group shots after, the single output light from the camera mounted 580 wasnt even enough although i used a lightsphere (yea yea not the best, but it was a small room, worked well enough and was nowhere near as harsh as bounced/straight flash)

So what i want to do is potentially get some cheaper yongnuos as background lights so i can then relocated the flashes to have 2 behind, 2 infront and 1 on camera for a better distribution of light.

Which yongnuo is recommended if all i want to do is get them to fire via optical slave and they will be in manual mode?

Alternatively is there a better solution?

Im also researching to buy some light stands and umbrellas off amazon too as they ship to australia (cowboystudio umbrellas and manfrotto stands maybe) if anyone has any suggestions on that too.

Thanks

I've used el cheapo cowboy triggers and you could then Mix your flashes w/o the need for optical triggering. I can't justify the $$$$ for TTL triggers, I'd just rather buy some newer 600 EX-RT flashes.

hmm ive been doing some reading on the YN flashes and may get the YN560II, but here is a quick summary(correct me if im wrong):

YN560: first version (competitor to 580ex, M only)YN560II: updated YN560 with rear LCD, still M onlyYN560EX: YN560II with TTL off camera slave only and can be controlled in-camera (ie 7d) via Canon IR wirelessYN565EX: As above with full TTL and can be used as slave to Canon 580EXII/ST-E2 via Canon IR wireless. Has cross-brand compatibility for wireless slave mode

with that, i think the YN560II is probably still the one for me, as i only need manual firing via optical slave for them as background lights.

Is their optical slave sensitive enough if i have them partially hidden behind an umbrella or reflector etc providing im in a small enough room that it can get bounced flash from my main 580exII?

hmm ive been doing some reading on the YN flashes and may get the YN560II, but here is a quick summary(correct me if im wrong):

YN560: first version (competitor to 580ex, M only)YN560II: updated YN560 with rear LCD, still M onlyYN560EX: YN560II with TTL off camera slave only and can be controlled in-camera (ie 7d) via Canon IR wirelessYN565EX: As above with full TTL and can be used as slave to Canon 580EXII/ST-E2 via Canon IR wireless. Has cross-brand compatibility for wireless slave mode

with that, i think the YN560II is probably still the one for me, as i only need manual firing via optical slave for them as background lights.

Is their optical slave sensitive enough if i have them partially hidden behind an umbrella or reflector etc providing im in a small enough room that it can get bounced flash from my main 580exII?

yeah the best way to mount them is sideways in the cold shoe so the optical sensor is facing the direction of the camera and then tilt the flash head sideways firing into the umbella or modifier unless the flash is blocked completely it should be fine

if you are shooting more serious portraits...then you should be setting lights to manual for consistent output.for cheap triggering use flash zebras optical triggers...as long as other flashes are not going off around you... the optical slaves do not discriminate between one flash or another going off.

OK well in the past WEIN made a programable IR trigger but wasnt practical sun use or distance.